PhD Research Proposal

Rights on The Road: Disability Movements In Indonesia and The Philippines in

Response to The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Slamet Thohari

Current discussions about social movements barely touch on the disabled rights’
movement, particularly in countries which are located in Southeast Asia. It is, absolutely, one
of the most important contemporary movements in our era of vast social change. The
movement can be found in Southeast Asian countries that have recently ratified the
Convention On the Rights of Person with Disabilities (CRPD). Accordingly, I will focus my
research on disability movements in Jakarta, Indonesia and Metro Manila, The Philippines
(both are capital cities of their respective countries, and the most prominent locations for the
disabled rights’ movement.)

Both Indonesia and the Philippines are developing countries and have some cultural
similarities. The two countries are also both democratic countries with an authoritarian past.
In 1998, Indonesia made a remarkable transition from Suharto’s oligarchy to a democratic
political system. It was a moment that many social groups and civil organizations took
advantage of to voice their concern eople within the disabled rights’ movement had more
opportunities to express their opinions, to argue their case, and to promote their causes. One
of these efforts was to put forward new paradigms expressed in the term ‘difabel’ which
means ‘differently-abled-people’. Changing the term is a new concept, which demands new
policies and attitudes. These attitudes are more democratic and include people with
disabilities as full citizens. The most recent development in this effort is that Indonesia
ratified the CRPD in 2011.

Similar to Indonesia, the Philippines are a country which transitioned to democracy

after Ferdinand Marcos was brought down by the People’s Power movement in 1986. After
ratifying the CRPD in 2008, the Philippines began to offer protection to people with
disabilities through the establishment of the National Commission on Disability Affairs
(NCDA). However, the effort to implement equal rigths for people with disabilities is facing
many obstacles. There is a long list of disability laws found on the NCDA website, but their
implementation is questionable. For example, access for the disabled is still a remote dream,
despite there being legislation in place. There are no means of ‘accessible’ transportation.
Buses and jeepneys in the (Manila) Philippines cannot accomodate wheelchair users.

These phenomena sparked my interest in conducting research on how disability rights

policy and social movements emerge

Key Questions

The aim of my PhD reseach are first to investigate the technical implementation of the
Convention on The Rights of Person with Disabilities in Indonesia and the Philippines.
Second I will investigate how the disability rights movement struggle and encourages the
governments in each city to implement the CRPD Accordingly, this research will:
 1) compare the policies and legislation of both Governments (Jakarta and Metro
Manila), with respect to people with disabilities;
2) analyze how disability movement works in both capitals
3) identify the key components of the disability movement in Jakarta and Metro Manila
4) compare strengths and weaknesses in implementation in both countries; and,
5) identify future directions for the disability movements in both countries.

The significance of my research will be: a critical analysis of how the rights of people with
disabilities have been, and are being, implemented in both Indonesia and the Philippines and
how those rights might be implemented differently or better in the future.

Theoretical Framework

For many decades people with disabilities have been spotted in medical issues. They
are a group deviating mainstream of society .They role as what called by Talcot Parson as
“sick role” within society where people should participate actively in supporting system. The
inability to participate in the system is accused as the problem of individual who has
impairment. Impairment is considered to strike individuals making suffering and blighting
lives (oliver, 1990) Challenging this ‘personal tragedy theory’, Mike Oliver introduced the
social model concept of disability which defines disability as “social creation” means being
disabled is due to the environment and the way society has been organized (Oliver, 1990, )
Being disabled is caused by structure of society which has been ruled by capitalistic system.
(Oliver, 1983, 1990, 1996, Barnes 1999, Vic Finkelstein, 1980; 1981).

Similar with social model challenging the medical model, American Scholar such as
Irving Zola, Paul Longmore, Nancy Crewe dan Ron Amundsen believed that disability is a
problem which closely related to minority issues so it’s called “the minority group model of
disabilities”. Unlike social model which based on materialism, and categorized people with
disabilities as “oppressed group”, they argued that disability is minority issues which will be
in line with civil rights movement; furthermore talking on disability is closely talking on
basic rights of human (Chadwick, A. 2008). Meanwhile, Marcia Rioux (2004) came with a
new concept on how people with disabilities should have the same rights as other people as
human being as the problem of people with disabilities basically is the way they get their
rights equally. The research will examine the theories on disability both social model and
rights based model.

The perspectives examine some of social movement theories specifically on resources

mobilization theory (RMT) and collective identity theory. RMT as MaCarty said that social
movement emphasized the variety of sources of resources including actors, relationship of
social movement to media and interaction with other social movement organization and
authorities (MaCarty and Zald 1977). I do believe, in the case of disability movement, the
social movement occurred as collective movement in which disability become collective
identity. Furthermore, theory of collective identity will be very significant as well to use, as
Alberto Melucci (1995) said that to know how a social movement fails or succeeds is a task
of sociologist. Using the same notion, Hunt and Benford stated that collective identity will
replace the Marxist traditions which pointed class consciousness as a culprit of mobilization
and individual attachments to the movement. ( Hunt and Benford, 2005: 437)

Methodology

This research will employ a historical and cultural analysis of institutional processes. My goal
is to analyze the data, and subsequently generate a useful comparison between the two
countries by documenting patterns and differences. To investigate about how social and
cultural factors in the Philippines relate to disability issues, I will conduct research using a
cultural analysis approach that covers the history of how disability is viewed in Philippiines
society, and the effects of the implementation of the CRPD and the emergence of the
disability movement in Indonesia and the Philippines.

I will use mixed methods for this study: a literature review of historical records,
contemporary documents, observations, and interviews of key players involved in the
formation and implementation of disability policy. In addition, I will collect data from other
individual and institutional stakeholders involved in the disability movement, including
NGOs, CSOs, DPOs and other agencies associated with the promotion of disability issues
and the implementation of the CRPD in Indonesia and the Philippines.

Bibliography
Barnes, C. (1997), “A Legacy of Operassion: A History in Western Culture” dalam L. Berton
dan M. Oliver. Disability Studies Past Present and Future. Leeds: The Disability
Press. Barnes, C, & Mercer, G. (2003). Disability. Cambridge: Oxford. Barnes, C.
(2006). “Theories of Disability and The Origins of the Opression of Disabled People
in Western Society” dalam Barton, L. Disability and Society: Emerging Issues and
Insight. Halow: Longman, page. 43—60.

Chadwick, A. (2008), “Knowledge, Power and the Disability Discrimination Bill” dalam
Watson, N (ed.) Disability: Major Themes in Health and Social Welfare. London &
New York: Routledge, hlm. 443—461.

Hunt, S., R. Benford and David Snow 1994. ‘Identity Fields: Framing Processes and The
Social Construction of Movement Identities.’ Pp. 185–208 in New Social Movements:
From Ideology To Identity, edited by E. Laran˜a, H. Johnston and J. R. Gusfield.
Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

John D McCarthy and Zald, 1977, Resources Mobilization Partial Theory in American
Journal od Sociology, Vol 8. No 6

Melucci, Alberto 1995. ‘The Process of Collective Identity’. Pp. 41–63 in Social Movements
and Culture, edited by Hank Johnston and Bert Klandermans. Minneapolis: University
of Minnesota Press

Oliver, Michel. (1990). The Politics of Disablement. London: MacMillan.